Eric Avner is convinced philanthropy can do more to build cities. As Vice President of The Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation since April, 2008, he directs the Foundation’s community development grantmaking, focusing on Cincinnati’s distinctive urban neighborhoods, a talented regional workforce, and a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Eric also founded and was CEO of People’s Liberty (2014-2019), the Foundation’s 8,000sf philanthropic lab that explored a new role for foundations interested in investing in place by investing in people.

Eric received his B.A. (Geography - Urban Systems) from McGill University (Montreal) in 1993 and attended Cornell University to pursue an M.A. (Historic Preservation Planning). He currently serves on the boards of Philanthropy Ohio, Cincinnati Development Fund, Catalytic Development Funding Corp. of Northern Kentucky, Represent OTR, and ArtWorks Cincinnati. In 2018, he was elected to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Community Advisory Committee and sits on the Cincinnati New Market Advisory Committee.

Program Director, Neighborhood Revitalization & Engagement, Cleveland Foundation Nelson is the Program Director for Neighborhood Revitalization & Engagement. He rejoined the foundation in January 2018 after spending four years at Saint Luke’s Foundation, where he served as Senior Program Officer for a Strong Neighborhood. In that role, Nelson oversaw their Strong Neighborhood program, with the goal of making enhancements to the built environment and improving social conditions in the Buckeye-Shaker, Mt. Pleasant and Woodland Hills neighborhoods. Before that, Nelson served as Program Officer for the Cleveland Foundation’s Responsive Grantmaking, focusing on community development, environmental sustainability and program management of the Summer Internship program. Nelson has also worked for the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, University Hospitals Health System, Cole Managed Vision, and the American Red Cross. Nelson also served with the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry). He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Psychology from Cleveland State University. Nelson and his wife are empty nesters and live in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland.

As the leader of the marketing and communications department, Tracy Burt is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the Akron Community Foundation's marketing initiatives and management of the organization's brand. Prior to joining the Akron Community Foundation in 2013, Tracy developed and executed integrated marketing plans for a variety of business-to-business and consumer clients as an account director at a local public relations and marketing agency. She has a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Kent State University.

As the Director of Communications and Digital Strategy for The Center for Community Solutions, Dani Carlson guides team members in all aspects of the organization’s overall communications goals and spearheaded the efforts to offer a local health and human services journalism grant. Before joining Community Solutions, Dani spent more than a decade as an investigative journalist at television stations across the country, winning multiple awards (including an Emmy) for her reporting. She is a Chicago native and a proud graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School.

On April 1, 2013, Tom Katzenmeyer became President and CEO of the Greater Columbus Arts Council (Arts Council).  

Prior to coming to the Arts Council, he served as Senior Vice President for University Communications at The Ohio State University, where he led an office that oversaw OSU’s university-wide communications and reputation management. The office included the units of Internal Communications, Marketing Communications, Media Relations, Research Communications, and WOSU Public Media.

Katzenmeyer serves on the boards of Experience Columbus, the Columbus Clippers, YMCA of Central Ohio, the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and is a Trustee of the Crane Family Foundation at the Columbus Foundation, the board of Campus Partners for Urban Redevelopment, and on the advisory board of LiFE Sports.

He is past Board Chair of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, YMCA of Central Ohio, Columbus Metropolitan Library Foundation, Columbus Clippers, and Leadership Columbus.

He received the 2019 CEO of the Year Award (large nonprofit) from Columbus CEO Magazine; 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award and 2018 Most Admired Executive Award from Columbus Business First; and the 2017 Forte Award from the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus.

Katzenmeyer has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in journalism from The Ohio State University.

Brian has served as Executive Director of Nonprofit VOTE since 2014. During his tenure, he has worked successfully to raise the visibility of Nonprofit VOTE's work on the national stage and worked to bring the voter engagement strategies of Nonprofit VOTE to scale, leveraging new resources, documenting the impact of its work, and forging new partnerships. During his tenure, Nonprofit VOTE also assumed management of the collaborative National Voter Registration Day event which it has run since 2017, including its most successful years to date.

Prior to his tenure at Nonprofit VOTE, Brian worked for over 20 years in the nonprofit space. He served as Executive Director of Boston-based United for a Fair Economy (UFE), an organization recognized for its sentinel work to raise the veil of growing economic inequality. While at UFE, he co-authored the book The Self Made Myth, with a forward by Bill Gates, Sr. Brian also served 12 years as Executive Director for Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, a statewide coalition working to pass comprehensive tax reform. A south Louisiana native with Cajun roots, Brian started his career as a community organizer in Louisiana before moving on to organize in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Jill Miller is president of Bethesda Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization that is both co-sponsor of TriHealth, a leading integrated health care system in Southwest Ohio, and creator of bi3,  grantmaking initiative to transform the health and well being of all people in Greater Cincinnati. 

Under her leadership, bi3 fueled new care models to reduce infant mortality, improved access to care for people with disabilities, enhanced end-of-life care, while lowering healthcare costs. Addressing these issues are essential for creating significant improvement in community health and in healthcare delivery.

Earlier in her career, Jill founded and led the Joey Votto Foundation, where she managed and facilitated grants, created new grassroots programs, and built meaningful relationships with community partners. She served as development director at Ronald McDonald House, where she exceeded fundraising goals, facilitated organizational change, and led efforts to empower board members and community volunteers. Jill also has held leadership roles in the financial and insurance industries.

In 2020, Jill served as chair of the Funders Collaborative that helped guide the decision making processes associated with the COVID-19 Regional Response Fund.  The Fund rapidly mobilized to provide community grants to support the most vulnerable in our community.  Jill also serves on Miami University’s Economics Advisory Board, Camp Joy’s Board of Trustees, The Health Collaborative’s Accountable Health Communities Advisory Board, Cradle Cincinnati Advisory Board, and Bethesda Foundation Board of Trustees.  

She is a 2016 YWCA Rising Star, a member of Leadership Cincinnati Class 39 and the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2016 Forty Under 40 class. Jill holds a Business Economics degree from Miami University and MBA from Xavier University.  

Lila Mills has been with Neighborhood Connections for 8 years where she has focused on lifting up the stories of residents making positive change in Cleveland and East Cleveland -- first as the editor of the grassroots newspaper Greater University Circle Neighborhood Voice and, since 2015, as the program’s communications manager. Born and raised on the southeast side of Cleveland, Lila spent 10 years as a journalist prior to coming to Neighborhood Connections.

Michael serves as Chief Marketing Officer at the Cleveland Foundation, providing strategic communications and marketing oversight for the world’s first community foundation. Prior to joining the foundation in 2013, Michael was a managing director at the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, where he served as a counselor to Fortune 100 corporate and financial clients. Michael also served as a senior vice president and partner at the international integrated communications firm Fleishman-Hillard, leading the company’s LGBT outreach and engagement practice. Michael began his career at Ketchum Public Relations in New York and D.C., working in the corporate and social marketing practices.

Whitney Parnell is a Black millennial activist, singer, and the Founder and CEO of Service Never Sleeps, a nonprofit that empowers individuals and communities to catalyze social justice through service and Allyship. Her movement work involves equipping effective allies through truth-telling, bridgebuilding, empathy, and action. She grew up between Latin America and West Africa as a Foreign Service child. At Washington University in St. Louis, Whitney doubled majored in English and Spanish, and minored in Communications and Journalism, during which she also embraced her calling as an activist. Whitney’s passion for service and social justice brought her to Washington, DC after college to serve with City Year, and then work in homeless services, before founding Service Never Sleeps in 2015. Whitney is also a musician, and is releasing a social justice album called "What Will You Do," with the goal of using empathy through song to ignite action.

Shaady Salehi is a strategist, facilitator, and network builder who has dedicated nearly 20 years to advancing social impact across various sectors. She currently serves as the director of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, a 5-year learning and advocacy initiative to make trust-based practices the norm in the philanthropic sector. She also is Principal and Founder of Skyview Strategies, a social impact consultancy for nonprofits, foundations, and changemakers. Previously, Shaady was Managing Director of Distribution and Impact at ITVS, where she led a team to advance the reach and impact of documentaries on public television. Prior to ITVS, she was Executive Director of Active Voice, a pioneering organization that uses storytelling to catalyze social change. Shaady is a 2014 Aspen Institute Fellow and sits on the board of Let It Ripple, a nonprofit that experiments with collaborative filmmaking for the common good. She holds an M.S. in Strategic Communications from Columbia University, an M.A. in Anthropology from UC Davis, and a B.A. in Anthropology from Oberlin College. She is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and currently lives in San Francisco.

Dr. Julie Sweetland is a senior advisor at the FrameWorks Institute, a nonprofit think tank that equips progressive change-makers to lead productive public conversations on scientific and social justice issues.

Since joining FrameWorks in 2012, Dr. Sweetland has designed, co-constructed, and led powerful learning experiences for nonprofit communicators seeking to tap into the power of narrative to drive change. In the process, she has supported advocates, community organizers, philanthropists, and issue experts to find the right frame and work in coalition to change the conversation. Her work has spanned a number of social issues – public health, climate change, education, youth justice reform, racial justice, and more. 

Prior to joining FrameWorks, Julie spent over a decade working to transform teaching and learning as a classroom teacher and teacher educator. At Center for Inspired Teaching, she designed an innovative teacher residency which has since trained hundreds of progressive educators who work throughout DC public schools.  Julie's linguistic research has focused on the intersection of language and race; on the role of language style and language attitudes on student learning; and on effective professional learning for teachers. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and completed her MA and PhD in linguistics at Stanford University. She lives in a democratically-run cohousing community with her amazing daughter in Washington, DC.

Edwin Torres joined Grantmakers in the Arts as president & CEO in October 2017. Torres served on the GIA board of directors from 2011 through 2016. He most recently served as deputy commissioner of cultural affairs for New York City, where he worked on elements of the city’s long-term sustainability plan, a study of and efforts to support the diversity of the city’s cultural organizations and the city’s first cultural plan. Prior to joining the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, he was a program officer with The Rockefeller Foundation, where he worked on the foundation’s support for arts and culture, jobs access, and resilience. He has also served in the dean’s office at Parsons the New School for Design, on the arts and culture team at The Ford Foundation as well as on the staff of the Bronx Council on the Arts. He holds a Master of Arts in Art History from Hunter College and a Master of Science in Management from The New School.

Leon has over 25 years in Information Technology, currently as the Chief of Digital Innovation & Chief Information Officer at the Cleveland Foundation. In this dual role, Leon is part of the executive committee leading the foundation’s Information & Technology Services department, focusing on strategic and transformational use of technology and data within the foundation and the philanthropic sector. Additionally, as Chief of Digital Innovation, Leon oversees the foundation’s Digital Excellence grant-making strategy geared toward “building a stronger, more equitable and inclusive digital community” tackling Cleveland’s digital divide; along with elevating Greater Cleveland’s position as a intelligent / smart city and regional technology innovation hub.

Jennifer Zimmerman is the Director of Grants and Evaluation for bi3, Bethesda Inc.’s grantmaking initiative to transform the health and well being of all people in Greater Cincinnati. Jennifer leads the development of bi3’s strategy and collaborative relationships to achieve its mission. She partners with grantees to plan, implement and evaluate grant-funded initiatives. Previously, Jennifer was the principle of JCZ Consulting, LLC, a consulting firm offering evaluation, program development and strategic planning services to nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. She has served as the director of the Consortium for Resilient Young Children, director of evaluation for Learning Grove (formerly Children, Inc.) and was part of the evaluation staff at Interact for Health (formerly the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati). Jennifer serves on the Cradle Cincinnati Advisory Board, GreenLight Cincinnati Advisory Board and Bethesda Foundation Research and Grants Committee. She is a member of the Cincinnati Chamber’s C-Change Class 2 and holds a Master’s degree in Social Work with a focus in social and economic development.